Extreme Rules (2014)
Extreme Rules (2014) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event produced by WWE. It took place on May 4, 2014 at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It was the sixth event under the Extreme Rules chronology. Eight professional wrestling matches took place at the event. In the main event, Daniel Bryan successfully defended the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Kane. Also, The Shield (Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns) managed to overcome the reunited Evolution (Triple H, Randy Orton and Batista) in a six-man tag team match. The event received 108,000 buys (excluding WWE Network views), down from the previous year's 231,000 buys. Storylines The card consisted of eight matches, including one on the pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches, with results predetermined by WWE's writers. Storylines between the characters played out on WWE's primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown. Fresh off his win at WrestleMania, John Cena continued to feud with Bray Wyatt of The Wyatt Family. Cena called Wyatt out for his inability to physically defend himself and his cryptic messages without Luke Harper and Erick Rowan by his side. To make Wyatt prove himself, Cena challenged him to a steel cage match, which Wyatt accepted. On the April 28, 2014 episode of Raw, Cena entered the steel cage to address Wyatt's evil message saying that it has begun to spread amongst the audience, only to be greeted by Wyatt and a children's choir singing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" with many Wyatt Family supporters singing along. As the children surrounded the ring, the lights went out before coming back on, with the children now wearing sheep masks as Wyatt laughed maniacally with a child on his lap. On Raw the day after WrestleMania XXX, Triple H forced Daniel Bryan to defend his newly-won WWE World Heavyweight Championship against him. However, Triple H's former bodyguards, The Shield, turned on him and attacked him, resulting in a no contest. As a result, Triple H reformed Evolution with Batista and Randy Orton and attacked The Shield the following week on Raw. On the April 18 edition of SmackDown, Triple H scheduled a six-man tag team match between Evolution and The Shield for Extreme Rules. On the Raw before Extreme Rules, Ric Flair, once part of Evolution, came out only to give his endorsement to the Shield, acknowledging them as the future of the WWE. On the April 7 edition of Raw, AJ Lee was bragging about having defended her title against 13 other divas at WrestleMania XXX when NXT Women's Champion Paige came out to congratulate AJ on her title defense. AJ then slapped Paige and challenged her to a match for AJ's Divas Championship. The match itself was dominated by AJ until Paige escaped AJ's submission move, the Black Widow, and hit one of her finishing moves, the Paige Turner, to win her first WWE Divas Championship. On the April 15 episode of WWE Main Event, AJ's bodyguard, Tamina Snuka, won a battle royal to become number one contender to Paige's title, allowing her to wrestle Paige for the championship at Extreme Rules. On the Raw after WrestleMania XXX, Cesaro replaced his manager Zeb Colter with Paul Heyman. This started a rivalry between Heyman and Colter, and by extension between Cesaro and his former tag team partner, Jack Swagger, who was still managed by Colter. Both wrestlers were entered into the tournament to determine Big E's challenger. Prior to Cesaro's semi-final match against Rob Van Dam, Van Dam badmouthed Heyman and advised Cesaro to stay away from him. Van Dam beat Cesaro via count-out after interference from Swagger and Colter. The following week on Raw, Colter approached Van Dam and suggested that he and Swagger team up to take on a common enemy in Heyman, but Van Dam declined. Van Dam later lost the tournament final to Bad News Barrett after interference from Cesaro; Swagger then appeared, attacked Cesaro and attempted to attack Van Dam before being fought off. This set up a triple-threat match between Cesaro, Swagger and Van Dam at Extreme Rules. On the April 21 episode of Raw, Bryan and Brie Bella were getting ready to celebrate their marriage when Stephanie McMahon came out and scheduled Bryan to defend his WWE World Heavyweight Championship against Kane at Extreme Rules. Kane then came out from the audience and attacked Bryan, giving him three Tombstone Piledrivers – the first on the floor, the second on the steel steps, and the third on the broadcast table, resulting in Bryan being stretchered out of the arena. One week later, during Brie Bella's match with Paige, Kane came up through a hole from underneath the ring and attempted to pull Brie down with him but she got away. Alexander Rusev made his main roster debut on April 7 and scored victories over various superstars, including R-Truth and Xavier Woods. He also attacked both competitors after their respective matches. This set up a 2-on-1 Handicap match with Rusev against R-Truth and Woods at the pay-per-view. On May 2 edition of SmackDown, El Torito and Hornswoggle signed the contract for a WeeLC match - a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match featuring midget wrestlers, with reduced size tables, ladders, and chairs than a normal such match, for the pre-show. Aftermath At the start of Raw after Extreme Rules, Dean Ambrose was forced to defend his United States Championship in a 20-man Battle royal. Ambrose made it to the end with Sheamus, Sheamus eliminated Ambrose to win his second United States Championship, ending Ambrose's reign at 351 days. The Shield then fought The Wyatt Family later in the night; just as things turned in The Shield's favor, Evolution came out and distracted The Shield, allowing The Wyatt Family to win the match. Evolution then assaulted The Shield, and humiliated them by performing The Shield's signature Triple Powerbomb to Roman Reigns. This led to The Shield challenging Evolution to a rematch at Payback, which they accepted. The match was made a No Holds Barred Elimination match. Cena's feud with Wyatt continued with a Last Man Standing match being set up for Payback. At the pay-per-view, Cena buried Wyatt to win the match and end their feud. On the May 12 episode of Raw, Daniel Bryan announced that he would undergo neck surgery, and would be absent from WWE for an unspecified amount of time. That same night, Stephanie McMahon called Bryan to the ring, before Kane dragged him out into the entrance before being loaded onto a stretcher by medical personnel. On May 15, Bryan underwent successful neck surgery, with a cervical foraminotomy to decompress the nerve root having been performed. On the May 19 edition of Raw, Stephanie McMahon gave Bryan an ultimatum to surrender the WWE World Heavyweight Championship the following week on Raw. Bryan replied next week on Raw that he wouldn't surrender it. McMahon then retaliated saying that she would give until Payback to surrender the title. If he didn't surrender, his wife Brie Bella will be fired. At Payback, Brie would let Bryan keep the championship by quitting WWE, and finalized it by slapping McMahon across the face. Results Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events * Extreme Rules Category:Extreme Rules Category:2014 Pay-Per-View Events Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events